1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to environmental information providing method and system which are suitable for assisting a network on which environmental information is to be disclosed and shared, such as pollen information providing method and system for detecting amounts of pollens scattered at a plurality of regions, applying information processing according to needs, and providing pollen information through a communication system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional sensors for handling environmental information over a wide range include a radio-sonde or the like which collects weather information such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and wind direction while moving according to a preset condition and transmits the weather information, and a rain gauge, wind gauge or the like at the meteorological observatory which passively acquires observational information and transmits the observational information. With these conventional sensors, it is difficult to realize the long term measurement while automatically changing the measurement condition such as measurement position or frequency according to a state of the environmental information at a target region.
Also, the conventionally provided environmental information has been a physical quantity such as temperature. For this reason, the environmental information accounting for a personal sensitivity has not been provided in practice. For example, there is an individual difference in a relationship between the pollen count in the environment and the onset of the pollen allergy (pollinosis), but there has been no practice for providing tailor-made information that accounts for such an individual difference.
More specifically, the scattering of pollens is a severe threat to a person suffering the pollen allergy so that it is important for each such person to take his/her own measures at an early stage, such as learning an arrival of the pollen scattering season earlier or learning regions where a large amount of pollens are scattering earlier, predicting an influence from these regions to the own residence area or an arrival timing at the own residence area, and avoiding visits to these regions as much as possible or taking preventive medicine in some cases.
Also, the symptoms of the pollen allergy are different for different pollen allergic persons so that there can be persons who are very sensitive to pollens even in a state where only a small amount of pollens are scattering as well as persons who have no problem with the scattering of only a small amount of pollens. As such, different individuals have different sensitivities with respect to the scattering of pollens and there is an individual difference in a relationship between the amount of pollens scattering in the atmosphere and the onset of the pollen allergy.
Conventionally, there has been a system for observing the weather information such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and wind direction and disclosing the weather information as the environmental information, but there has been no system for measuring and collecting the amounts of pollens scattering in the atmosphere and distributing such information.
Also, the conventionally provided environmental information is a physical quantity such as temperature in general, and there has been no practice for providing the environmental information that depends on the personal sensitivity. Namely, there is an individual difference in a relationship between the amount of pollens in the atmosphere and the onset of the pollen allergy, but there has been no practice for providing one-to-one information for each individual by setting a one-to-one correspondence between the amount of pollens and the pollen allergy of each individual.
Moreover, there has been no practice for providing information on a macroscopic change of a base line of the amount of scattering pollens or regional distributions of base line states rather than a temporary amount of scattering pollens at a given timing.
As described, conventionally, there is a problem that no appropriate system for measuring, collecting and distributing the amount of pollens scattering in the atmosphere is available so that the pollen allergic person could not have taken appropriate measures at an early stage, and there are demands for a system that measures and provides the amount of pollens scattering in the atmosphere.
Also, as described above, different individuals exhibit different pollen allergy symptoms in relation to the amount of pollens scattering in the atmosphere so that what is really needed for the pollen allergic person is a one-to-one information for each individual that is provided by setting one-to-one correspondence between each individual and the pollen allergy symptom of each individual in relation to the amount of pollens, but there is a problem that there has been no practice for providing such a one-to-one information conventionally.
Moreover, it can be beneficial for the pollen allergic persons to have information on a macroscopic change of a base line of the amount of scattering pollens or regional distributions of base line states rather than a temporary amount of scattering pollens at a given timing, but there is a problem that there has been no practice for providing such information.